The 1982 Illinois gubernatorial election was held in Illinois on November 2, 1982. Incumbent Republican governor James R. Thompson won a third term in office, defeating the Democratic nominee, former United States Senator Adlai Stevenson III, by a slim margin of about 5,000 votes.
Election information
The election coincided with those for Congress and those for other state offices. The election was part of the 1982 Illinois elections.
Turnout
Turnout in the primaries saw 22.42% in the gubernatorial primaries, with a total of 1,337,581 votes cast, and 20.25% in the lieutenant gubernatorial primary, with 1,208,178 votes cast.
Turnout during the general election was 61.58%, with 3,673,707 votes cast.
Democratic primary
Governor
Adlai Stevenson III, former United States Senator, won the primary for the gubernatorial nomination unopposed.
Lieutenant governor
Grace Mary Stern won the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor unopposed.
Republican primary
Governor
Incumbent James R. Thompson defeated challengers John E. Roche and V. A. Kelley.
Lieutenant governor
George Ryan defeated Susan Catania and Donald L. Totten in the lieutenant gubernatorial primary.
General election results
Stevenson complained that Thompson was trying to portray him as an ineffectual elitist by famously stating, "He is saying 'Me tough guy,' as if to imply that I’m some kind of wimp." Before the election, Thompson had been favored by polls and predictions to win by roughly twenty percentage points.
The nominees of the third-party Libertarian and Taxpayers tickets were both right-of-center, and were therefore regarded as more likely to siphon off more potential supporters from Thompson than from Stevenson.
Statewide result
Thompson won by a narrow 5,074 vote margin. Thompson carried 83 of Illinois' 102 counties, while Stevenson carried on 19. However, Stevenson won Cook County, home of Chicago. Cook County accounted for a substantial share of the state's population. Thompson had actually carried the vote of suburban Cook County. However, Stevenson had managed to win the city of Chicago by a margin of nearly 4 to 1. Thompson's narrow victory was likely attributable, in part, to his strong performance in the collar counties (the five counties that border Cook County; DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will).
The 1982 Democratic ticket performed better than the Democratic ticket had in the previous 1978 gubernatorial election. In the cumulative vote of Cook County and the five collar counties (DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will), the 1982 Democratic Ticket performed 10% better than the 1978 ticket had. At the time, the downstate Illinois vote was seen as very important to determining victory in Illinois statewide elections. The 1982 Democratic ticket performed better than the 1978 had in downstate Illinois. However, despite the Republican ticket performing weaker in downstate Illinois than it had in the 1978 election, the Republican ticket still managed to win downstate Illinois by a 136,917 vote margin, which was a key factor in securing their victory.
Rate of voter participation
3,673,707 (61.58%) of the state's 5,965,514 registered voters voted in the gubernatorial election. This percentage of registered voters participating in the 1982 gubernatorial election marked a 7.35% increase from that of the preceding 1978 gubernatorial election.
183,311 of the 3,856,875 individuals that cast ballots in the state's 1982 general election did not vote in the gubernatorial race. This number of "blank votes" in the gubernatorial election was equal to 4.75% of the voters who participated in the state general election, and 3.07% of the state's registered voters. 2,108,639 (35.35%) of the state's registered voters did not cast valid ballots in the state's general election. The combined total of the registered voters who cast no valid ballot and the registered voters who cast ballots with "blank votes" in the gubernatorial election meant that 2,291,950 (38.42%) of the registered voters did not vote in the gubernatorial election.
Geographic breakdowns of the results
Chicago vs. Cook County vs. collar counties vs. downstate Illinois
The following table breaks down the results into three categories, providing a comparative breakdown between the results in Chicago, the results in suburban Cook County, the results in the five collar counties (DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will), and the results the results of the remainder of Illinois ("downstate Illinois").